


sleep a little while (I'll be here)

by Hyeyu



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, Gap Filler, M/M, Minor Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 17:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8587648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyeyu/pseuds/Hyeyu
Summary: Victor feigns sleep a little longer, listening until the frantic heartbeat beneath his ear eventually calms down from its rabbit-quick pace.
A brief ficbit-filler that follows the nap scene in Episode 7.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Popped out in about an hour or so while trying to avoid doing Actual Work. I just want to write fluff, mkay? (;-;)9

Victor feigns sleep a little longer, listening until the frantic heartbeat beneath his ear eventually calms down from its rabbit-quick pace. Slowly, he feels Yuuri’s chest relax under him, the tension locking stiff limbs slowly draining at the other skater’s acceptance that he wasn’t going to be able to fight Victor on this. 

Still, Victor waits - sit up too early, and Yuuri would undoubtedly spring up with him, arguing that he should warm up, maybe practice a little more before the event started. Even worse, he might just resolve to do so anyway, whether Victor protested or not. If there’s anything Victor has learnt of his glass-hearted protege, it is that he is no pushover when he truly puts his mind to doing something.

In short, it would be much easier to be a human-sized Yuuri-paperweight than a rational figure-skating coach right now. Plus, it had the added benefit of allowing Victor to snuggle up to the smaller man, which was a rare opportunity indeed.

It hadn’t been hard to find an empty first aid room to rest in  - Victor’s competed at this venue enough times to know the layout of the ice stadium. He hadn’t been lying when he said he used to nap right up until it was time for him to compete; perfect performances needed optimal conditioning, and a well-rested body had better control over the technical aspects of a program. Given the importance of the free-skate program, Yuuri need as much control as he can muster when it’s his turn on the ice.

But Victor isn't competing, so the extra rest isn't needed this time around. Instead, he starts sketching out loose contingency plans in his head, even as he rises and falls with each breath Yuuri draws.  Yuuri panics easily, and has the unfortunate habit of piling the pressure onto himself too readily. Added to the fact that he was the last competitor of the day, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ended up psyching himself out enough to throw his focus off, which could only end up in certain disaster. But Victor thinks he's prepared - it's not the first time he's dealt with a nervous Yuuri before. Mentally, he checks ‘rest’ off the checklist in his head - this nap wouldn’t quite make up for a full night of awakeness, but Yuuri’s stamina was one of his strengths; he would pull through. If Yuuri started showing visible signs of distress in the competitor’s waiting room, Victor will simply have to find a space where Yuuri could warm up without distractions. There were stairwells, locker rooms; worse come to worst, there was always the underground parking lot. As for the cheers of the crowd, Victor had brought along his personal pair of sound cancelling ear plugs; they’ve never failed him before, and he’s sure they wouldn’t fail Yuuri now. Worse come to worse, he’ll have to find a way to distract Yuuri somehow, but he's always managed to pull it off before.

Not for the first time, Victor finds himself wondering, _what would Yakov do_? The years of experience under the Russian coach’s belt would have equipped him with far better methods to cope with these kinds of situations than Victor’s slipshod ones. Then again, Victor couldn’t imagine Yuuri under a coach like Yakov. Would he have elevated Yuuri far above what Victor could? Or would he have broken the Japanese skater altogether?

Well, Yakov isn’t Yuuri’s coach now. Victor is, and thinking of Yakov training Yuuri in Russia isn’t helping much at all. Victor finally, carefully sits up, eyes scanning Yuuri’s sleeping face. He presses a hand against Yuuri’s cheek, running the soft pads of his gloves over the soft skin there. He freezes when Yuuri mumbles, but the smaller man only shifts, leaning into the touch.

“Ah, _lapochka_ ,” Victor sighs, but it’s hopelessly, helplessly fond. “What should I do with you?”

The cotton sleep mask hides Yuuri’s eyes from sight, but Victor is willing to bet that there were tiny wrinkles of tension marring their corners. The eye-bag bruises had been horribly dark earlier; if this impromptu nap didn’t lighten them, well, Victor totes around concealer with him for a reason. 

His free hand rises to Yuuri’s head, gently carding through the fine, dark hair there and Yuuri makes a little sound, relaxes a little more into the mattress. Unbidden, Victor finds himself humming, snippets of an old song that had been sung over him as a child,

_Tired toys are sleeping, so are books._   
_Blankets and pillows are waiting for kids._   
_Even fairy tale goes to bed,_   
_so you could dream of it at night._   
_Close your eyes,_   
_Bayu-bay…_

Victor isn’t the best of singers, but he sings the words quietly, if a little off-key into the quiet, rhythmically stroking Yuuri’s hair. Only an hour or so to go before he has to wake the other skater up, two hours before he will know if he will need to implement any of his emergency measures. He hopes he won't have to.

But Victor doesn't believe in worrying incessantly; there is a time for that, and that time isn’t now. So he sits and sings, strokes and waits.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! ( ◞･౪･)
> 
> I have a tumblr [here](http://hweiro.tumblr.com/) if you want to come say hi.


End file.
